


Three Keys

by itcouldbeworse



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Found Family, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:21:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26385544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itcouldbeworse/pseuds/itcouldbeworse
Summary: Watch as Jason Todd slowly collects people and accidentally starts caring about them. Please take canon and throw it out the window because this will not line up at all.Jason finds out Young Justice base was blown up again and everyone went to stay with their mentors except Superboy. Red Hood decides to look into Conner's well being while on a mission in metropolis. Superboy learns the Red Hood isn't as evil as the league insinuates.
Relationships: Roy Harper/Jason Todd, Tim Drake/Kon-El | Conner Kent
Comments: 15
Kudos: 322





	Three Keys

Jason was rappelling through metropolis as the sun set in a city far brighter than Gotham. For once he actually wanted to be noticed by the big blue Boy scout. He figured he would let him know that he was in town, on Batman’s orders believe it or not, to gather intel on the source of an arms dealer. If he warned Superman that he was in town it would hopefully keep from any ill-timed interruptions. This job just required a little more stealth than a super usually used which is why he was wearing a lighter more casual version of his typical uniform. Speaking of ill-timed interruptions, Jason looked over and finally spotted Superman. He was standing on a rooftop talking to Superboy. Jason repelled to the latter leading up to the buildings rooftop and started climbing the rungs. He figured that was better than dropping in on two Supers out of nowhere. As he neared the roof however he overheard a bit of the conversation and paused in his ascent to listen closer. 

“I was just wondering if you heard about the explosion at Mt. Justice.” Superboy said a tad awkwardly. It was the hesitation and nervousness in his voice that really had Jason pausing. 

“I did.” Superman sounded rather disinterested. 

“Do you, maybe, know of any other safe houses the league uses. It’s just that I know Me’gan was living there and so were some other metas and I’m sure they’re looking for somewhere else to stay.”

“I think Batman was in charge of relocation.” Was all Superman said in response. He seemed pretty eager to be done with the conversation. “I should get going I’m running a little late.” Superman cut in before Superboy could say anything else.

“Anything I could help with?” Superboy offered.

“No.” Was the short reply. Jason winced at the cold tone and crept further up the latter just in time to see Superman take off and start to fly away. The heavy sigh Superboy let out caught Jason off guard and in his peripheral vision he saw Superman pause too. Jason looked at Superman and saw him roll his eyes before flying out of sight. Jason glared after him and mumbled “Dick.” Superboy must have heard him because he turned toward the latter quickly. 

“Who’s there?” His voice sounded thick.0  
Jason pulled off his helmet and popped his head up over the side of the building. 

“Just one of the bats here to let you know I’m visiting your city.” Jason tried to come off as non-threatening, but his smile may have been a little too sharp because Superboy looked at him with no small amount of mistrust before speaking. 

“It’s not my city. It’s Superman’s.” There was bitterness in his tone and Jason could relate to that. Maybe that’s why he threw out the offer. He just couldn’t walk away from another black sheep. He shrugged and threw a shot in the dark.

“Well, I told one super at least so I’ve done my job. If you want to keep an eye on me while I’m in town you can tag along on the mission, if not I’ll just do my thing.” Jason hoped he wouldn’t regret the offer. He at least looked mildly capable of a stealth mission. Superboy looked interested, but was clearly trying not to show it. 

“What exactly were you here on mission for?”  
Jason rolled his shoulders and spotted a diner on a street corner. 

“I’ll tell you over burgers, I’m starved.” Jason proceeded to rappel off the rooftop and head towards the diner without a backwards glance. He wasn’t sure Superboy would follow until he heard the thump of him landing on the pavement behind him. Together they exited the alleyway and started walking down the street. 

“What do you want to eat?” Jason asked once they were seated at a booth. 

“Not hungry.” Superboy said as he pushed a menu off to the side. He looked a little awkward in the booth and Jason didn’t really believe him. 

“Do you eat regularly like other people?” It was a fair question, given that Superman apparently rarely ever had to eat.

“I’m half human and half kryptonian so I have to eat more often than superman, but less often than everyone else. 

“When was the last time you ate?” Jason asked hoping for another honest answer.

Superboy shrugged “Maybe a couple days ago, but I’m not hungry.” The defensive way he said it felt like a lie to Jason so when the waitress came around Jason ordered a burger and fries for both of them and asked the waitress to put them both on the same bill. Superboy gave him an annoyed look. 

“It might look suspicious if you didn’t get anything.” Jason reasoned “and besides it couldn’t hurt.”  
Superboy had no comeback for that and turned the conversation back to the case. Jason told him just about everything he had on the arms dealers who were apparently shipping military grade plasma weapons through Metropolis and into Gotham. By the time he was finished their food was being served and they both cleared their plates in relative silence. Jason kept an eye on Superboy and noticed that a lot of tension seemed to leave him once he started eating. Maybe he had been a little hungry.

“So, I hear that the old base blew up.” Jason broke the silence casually. Superboy paused in dragging a French fry through ketchup and the tension was back. He nodded silently and ate the french-fry.  
“Did they move everyone to a different facility? I haven’t heard Tim mention anything about it and I know he crashes there sometimes.” Jason tried to keep his tone light.

“Batman’s working on it I think.” Was all he said and Jason did his best not to show his concern. He was 99% sure that Superboy didn’t have a place to stay and even more sure that all of the other mentors had taken in their proteges for the time being. Jason dug into his pocket and sent a text off to Oracle. 

“So, are you going to help me out on the mission? Might be pretty boring, tonight’s going to be a stakeout to see where the main supply might be.”  
Superboy nodded looking determined. 

“If there’s something going on in Metropolis I want to help.” Jason really couldn’t see why Superman held such a grudge against the kid. His phone pinged with a response confirming Jason’s suspicions and solidifying his decision. 

“Okay.” Jason agreed before holding up a set of 3 keys. Each one had a colored ring on the top to differentiate which was which. “In that case I need you to hold on to these for me. On the off chance that anything happens to me while we’re on this mission I need you to get these keys back to my teammates, Roy and Kori. I need you to make sure you hand deliver the keys yourself and they’ll know what to do, okay?”  
Superboy took the keys and nodded in understanding. 

“I will. I promise.” He said with no small amount of seriousness. With that they were officially on the case.  
\----------------------------------------------------------

Jason felt Superboy sigh next to him. The stakeout was a little boring. At the moment they were just staring at what appeared to be an empty building, but was actually rumored to be the holding facility for the weapons being unloaded. The main purpose of the stakeout is to get eyes on who was bringing the weapons into the city and trace them back to the main source or at the very least the next link in the chain. So far, however, absolutely nothing had happened and they’d been at it for about four hours.  
“Still sure about helping me on this one?” Jason asked more as an excuse to give Superboy an out if he was tired, but also because he was way too quiet. 

“Not like I have anywhere else to be.” Superboy deadpanned. Jason’s frowned a little at that and tried to not read too much into it. It didn’t really work. 

"I've done this before with the team." Superboy informed him.

"How'd that go?" Jason asked. Super boys lips ghosted a smile.

"Usually pretty good if we could get Bart to stop fidgeting. Tim was always pretty good at that." Jason noticed his smile grow a little more at that. Interesting.

"Not surprising. The replacements pretty quiet and dorky."

"Yeah he is a little dorky." Superboy agreed, but his smile turned fond. Jason was definitely digging into that later.

“Superman’s kind of a jerk though. I don’t know how you deal with him.” 

Superboy huffed. “To be honest I don’t deal with him very much. He doesn’t exactly need help very often.” Jason nodded at that. 

“Well at least he thinks your competent enough to handle solo missions.”

“Superman isn’t exactly in charge of what I do.” Superboy said a little defensively. “It’s not exactly like with the other mentors. Superman… probably would prefer if I just stuck with the team.”

“Well he’s definitely a jerk then.” Superboy chuckled at that. 

“I don’t see much of bats these days but he keep an annoyingly close eye on my missions.” 

Superboy nodded at that. “Yeah he’s always on the team about our missions too. It gets a little annoying. He was furious when he found out the base blew up. Again.” 

Jason couldn’t help but chuckle at that. “Probably won’t be the last time.” Jason quipped earning a small laugh.  
After another two hours of surveillance Jason stood up and stretched. 

“Alright I think that’s enough for one night. They’re clearly not making any moves tonight.” Superboy looked disappointed, but nodded in agreement and stood awkwardly next to Jason on the rooftop.  
“C’mon.” Jason said as he waved Superboy to follow. There were only a couple seconds of silence before he heard Superboys steps start to follow after him.  
Jason led Superboy to an alley a block away where he’d stashed his motorcycle earlier. 

“Ride or fly?” Jason asked as he held up an extra helmet. Superboy eyed the bike appreciatively and took the helmet.

“I probably don’t actually need this.” He commented. Jason only shrugged he supposed there were some perks to being part invulnerable alien. Jason got on the bike and Superboy sat behind him. He drove them a couple miles to an apartment complex at the edge of the city. When they arrived Jason silently led the way to the apartment and once at the door turned back to Superboy. 

“I’ll need those keys for a second.” Superboy quickly dug in his pocket and handed them over. Jason used the one with the blue ring to unlock the door and handed the keys straight back to Superboy.  
He looked questioningly at the keys, but put them back in his pocket regardless. 

“This is the safehouse we’ll be staying in while we’re on the mission.” Jason gave a sweep of his arm to present the smallish two bedroom apartment. “This ones mine and that one’s yours.” Jason said pointing out each room. “There should be a few changes of clothes in the dresser in there if you need them. Roy and Kori usually use the safehouses with me so the clothes should fit you. Do me a favor and don’t tell Batman about any of my safehouses you may see.” 

“No problem.” Superboy agreed immediately, nodding for emphasis. 

“Cool. I’m turning in but you can do whatever you want. I think Roy keeps a few movies around here. You’ll want to rest up at some point though because we have another exciting night of surveillance tomorrow.” 

“Thanks.” Superboy said sounding truly grateful and he actually smiled. “I’ll probably get some sleep soon too.” Jason nodded and went to his room to change. A few minutes later he heard the shower turn on and it made him curious just how long Superboy had been without a place to stay so he shot off another text to oracle. He received an answer within minutes. 

>Jason: How long ago exactly did the YJ base become a firework show?  
>Brains: Six days ago.

Jason frowned at that. 

>Jason: Did everyone’s stuff in there explode too?  
>Brains: Yes. It was an emergency maneuver. No one had any time to grab personal belongings. Why? Did you leave something there?

Jason didn’t want her getting suspicious. 

>Jason: Ugh. Yeah pretty sure I had a jacket there. Just great. 

She didn’t respond to that and Jason figured he was off the hook. Explains why the kid seemed so relieved. Where the hell had he been staying for nearly a week? It really wasn’t any of his business, but if there was one thing he couldn’t stand it was letting someone slip through the cracks especially someone who only wanted to help. Jason mentally cursed Superman one more time before flicking off the light and going to bed. 

The next morning Jason switched off his alarm and stretched as he headed into the kitchen area. He started the coffee pot and dug through the cabinets for something to cook. He had stopped by the safehouse before he ran into the supers on the roof and stocked the basics so they had enough supplies for eggs, bacon, and pancakes. Jason got to cooking and finished just as a yawning superboy walked into the room and started eyeing the bacon. Jason made a plate for himself and silently handed Superboy a plate too. 

“Eat up we have an especially exciting day of staring at a brick building ahead of us.” Superboy gave him a slight smile and put a little bit of everything on his plate. Jason had to restrain himself from adding more pancakes to Superboys plate. He knew the urge was Alfred’s fault. Instead of forcing more food on the super he took note of the fact that Superboy was eating again. He had just eaten a meal yesterday and he wondered if Superboy was actually eating out of hunger or just to be polite. If he was actually hungry then he might have been lying about not having to eat as often. 

“Thanks Hood.” Superboy said sincerely. 

“No problem, and you can call me Jason while we're in civvies.” Superboy looked mildly surprised at that. 

“You can call me Conner if you want.” He offered. Jason nodded in acknowledgement. 

“Will do.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked this chapter. I should have the next one up in a few days and later chapters may include additions to Jason's collection of misfits. He may even accidentally adopt a homeless kid in Fawcett city.


End file.
